Young Impact Featured in Scranton Times-Tribune
This article--featured in the Scranton Times-Tribune leading up to the July 30th - August 1st Startup Scramble NEPA Challenge at The University of Scranton's Kania School of Management--dives into the origins of Young Impact!
Clarks Summit native to teach budding entrepreneurs how to grow
Clarks Summit native Stephen Douglass [picture] left a lucrative job in finance to do what he does best - work with young entrepreneurs.
After years of working with ambitious young people throughout the country, Mr. Douglass, 27, is bringing his intensive, weekend-long Start Up Scramble to budding entrepreneurs in Northeast Pennsylvania.
From July 30 to Aug. 1, a group of hopeful youth will pitch ideas, brainstorm, develop business plans and collaborate with successful business people at the University of Scranton. By the end of the weekend, their businesses should be off the ground.
The guest mentors include founders of well-known websites, Peter Kamali of Meetup.com, and Blake Jenelle of MyDunkTank.com. Local figures such as Pepperjam founder Kristopher B. Jones and Andrew Cornell of Cornell Iron Works are also on the roster.
Blaze a New Approach to Economic Development and Innovation in Smaller Communities
Tier 2 & 3 communities (smaller regional economies) in search of a new
economic lifeblood must scrupulously assess how/where their economic development efforts, energy, and resources are c
If over 99% of startups never see a first term sheet from a venture capital (VC) firm, then why do economic
development leaders in "transitional" Tier 2 and 3 communities—regional economies struggling
to reconfigure and revitalize economic identities--allocate precious time
and resources to courting VC investment and committing capital to so-called innovation funds? Many regional leaders flaunt soft-core track-records of driving scalable change in any capacity. Peel away this pasty approach to economic development; find communities partaking in hot 'n heavy burlesque shows to lure large companies to town with subsidized club entrance fees and private dances of financial incentives. Motorboat approaches (that is, venture capital and Company Town strategies) to economic vitality are severely flawed...